Free coloreds’ coup was checked by black officers loyal to Laveaux

Evidence

The municipal government issued a decree declaring that the governor had “lost the confidence” of the people and had therefore been replaced by Villatte. But some resisted the coup. One of Villatte’s officers, Pierre Léveillé, circulated throughout Le Cap speaking out against Laveaux’s arrest. The governor, he declared, was the “protector of the blacks,” and if he died the free coloreds would turn over the colony to the English, and slavery would be reestablished. Léveillé was stopped by Villatte’s followers, but not before he sent a message to the officer Pierre Michel, who commanded outside Le Cap, asking him to help. Michel rallied together his officers—including Pierrot, Sonthonax’s first recruit in 1793—and demanded that Laveaux and Perroud be released. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 693

Categorization

• QUESTION: Léveillé claims overthrow would mean English take the colony and slavery returns — worth chasing how real this English threat was.